Will Barton has been there through it all.
Barton was already entrenched on the Nuggets’ roster when Nikola Jokic started turning heads at Jameer Nelson’s Philadelphia minicamp a few months before his rookie season in 2015. He was there for the fastest recorded triple-double, the 4o-point — and Jokic’s one career 50 — tour de forces, the era-defining regular season and playoff victories, and the stat lines never before seen in NBA history.
Few have had a better front-row seat to watch Jokic’s rise from unheralded second-round pick to All-NBA center, consecutive-time All-Star, and near-unanimous MVP. So to a teammate like Barton who’s seen everything Jokic can do, he knows those all-time Jokic performances are special, historic, and momentous, but there’s also something about them that at this point seems regular and expected.
“Just another day at the office,” Barton told DNVR regarding Jokic’s night as he exited Ball Arena late Sunday evening.
Props to Barton for being able to compartmentalize such an extraordinary display of basketball excellence. I’ve also watched Jokic up close for seven years. I’ve witnessed the individual feats, incomprehensible stat lines, and unfathomable games that he’s played. It’s still not and never will be ordinary to me.
What Nikola Jokic did Sunday night against New Orleans will be a game I never forget. If you watched it, you’ll probably never forget it either.
With New Orleans leading 96-89 with 10:23 left in the fourth, Jokic checked in. He then put together maybe the most dominant stretch of basketball I’ve ever watched. Jokic scored 23 points in the fourth and 23 of the Nuggets’ final 32 points of regulation. He then tallied seven more points in overtime against double and triple-teams to lift Denver to an improbable 138-130 win.
Jokic’s one and only miss of the fourth quarter and overtime came with 7:59 left on the clock. From then on he went a perfect 9-9 from the field and 9-9 from the free-throw line. Mid-range J’s, finger rolls around the rim, transition layups, contested 3s to beat the shot clock, a likely game-saving block at the rim where he transported over from the weakside with less than one minute left in regulation and the Nuggets trailing by four, and even two dunks; Jokic flashed his full catalog of finishing moves.
In total: Forty-six points on 16-22 shooting, 12 rebounds, 11 assists, 4 blocks, and 3 steals.
Come on, brother.
“He’s a cold-blooded killer,” said Michael Malone who watched the final act of Jokic’s masterclass from the Nuggets’ locker room with president Tim Connelly after getting ejected in the third quarter for arguing with an official.
Jokic is now the seventh player in NBA history joining James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Bird and Oscar Robertson with multiple 45-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist games in their career. He’s the first player since Kobe Bryant in 2007 to record 30-plus points in the fourth quarter and overtime and shoot 80% or better from the field, and the first to record a 40-point triple-double with four blocks since LeBron James in 2010.
It was a legendary performance. It was the best player in the world putting his team on his back yet again and delivering like it’s what he was put on this earth to do. It’s the type of game you tell your children and your children’s children about.
At the podium around 40 minutes after one of the best games of his career, Jokic praised assistant David Adelman for stepping into the head chair in Malone’s place. At one point he paused to look at his phone after a notification from his at-home baby monitor went off. As to his heart-pounding fourth quarter, Jokic spoke bashfully.
“I had a really good period,” he said. “My teammates were looking for me. I was making shots. I was aggressive. So, it was a really good period.”
Aaron Gordon who, chipped in 28 points and went 10-15 from the free-throw line, has only been Jokic’s teammate for just over 12 months. He’s still not numb to games like this.
“Phenomenal, different. He’s just different and it’s not just something that you see often,” said Gordon. “He took over. Thirty points in the fourth and overtime. That’s sick. And he’s capable of doing that. That was an amazing game, and he’s an amazing ballplayer, and he’s just a spectacle to watch.”
I’m surprised Jokic even admitted it because he usually likes to keep these details in-house, but he came into Sunday night’s matchup at less than 100%. Jokic was sick over the last few days and missed Friday’s win over the Rockets. He said he felt “weak,” like he “needed to throw up,” and didn’t eat for a day and a half. Jokic was feeling well enough to play vs. New Orleans but still wasn’t his usual self and played through a cough during the first half. A sparkling water, Jokic said, eventually got him right.
The Nuggets are 37-26. They’re 9-3 in their last 12 games but are stuck in the sixth spot in the West. Everyone — except the Warriors who the Nuggets face twice in the next four days including Monday night — is hot. But you know that Denver’s place in the conference isn’t top of mind for Jokic right now. He’s just concerned with beating whatever game plan and opponent he’s facing that night as he moves closer to his ultimate goal.
This 47-point triumph and last-ditch coup that he pulled over the Pelicans, it’s all just part of his process. Talking about a monumental individual effort with a straight face and barely celebrating his night, it’s just the next task on his agenda.
As Barton said, for the MVP, for the greatest player in the world and in his franchise’s history, it is just another day at the office.
“That’s is what he does,” Gordon said. “He’s used to this. He knows we have bigger goals in mind. There’s more at stake. He’s been here before and he’ll be here again.”
